In a dramatic development on Monday evening, the government said that Asif Ali Zardari, the jailed spouse of the PPP Chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, could go to Switzerland to defend himself in the SGS and Cotecna money laundering case in a Swiss court.
Zardari's lawyer, Farooq Naik, disclosed that a civil judge accompanied by the Islamabad Deputy Commissioner visited the prisoner at 8:30 pm on April 19 at a city hospital to hand him a Swiss court's summons to appear before it on April 22.
The court notice is reported to be dated March 23, which raises the question as to why the concerned people in the government sat on the summons for as long as they did. Naik, of course, alleged that the delay was deliberate.
Zardari has already spent eight years in prison - which is nearly as long as a murder case punishment - pending the completion of some 11 different cases of corruption as well as the murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto in various courts. Which is a sad reflection on the slow pace of the Pakistani judicial system as also the use of political influence, at times, by governments in legal proceedings against their opponents.
It was during Mian Nawaz Sharif's rule that a Lahore High Court bench had found both Zardari and his co-accused, Benazir Bhutto, guilty in the present money laundering case.
Much to the embarrassment of the government and the court after the announcement of the guilty verdict in the case, had appeared audio tapes of conversations between the then law minister and the presiding judge, which proved that the verdict had been delivered at the behest of the government. The judge had to resign while the case was referred to the Supreme Court.
Still, the case has political overtones too obvious to be ignored either by the government or Zardari. Commendably for it, the government has taken the right decision in allowing the accused to travel to Switzerland to defend himself, albeit it took too long to inform him of the decision.
It would not serve any useful purpose though for it to insist, like the Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad did, on taking the accused to Switzerland as an under-custody prisoner to ensure that he returns to Pakistan after the completion of the legal proceedings.
It must observe neutrality by allowing Zardari to seek bail from a local court to appear in the Swiss court. As Sheikh Rashid himself acknowledged, the government does not need any surety from Zardari to return, for it would be the responsibility of the Swiss government to send him back.
Strangely, however, some people allegedly in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have been quoted in the press as having claimed that Zardari is being allowed to proceed to Switzerland under a 'deal', hence, he is not going to come back. Rumours such as this, ill founded as they may be, only emphasise the political nature of the case.
Asif Zardari, incarcerated for so long, has indeed matured as a politician. He knows fully that it was Nawaz Sharif who provided him and the PPP the chance to resurrect themselves, by opting to go abroad instead of facing the courts and jails in Pakistan.
As some people in PPP believe, an imprisoned Nawaz Sharif could have grown into a political giant, and definitely would have made life difficult for the establishment, especially during the last elections.
Also the leaders around him would not have parted company enbloc as they did after he decided to prefer a cosier life abroad. Zardari's decision to decline the government's offer is obviously also based on the lesson learnt from the hazards the Sharif family is faced with, if it decides to come back without fulfilling the agreed terms with the government. Bhutto's party emerged as the single largest party at the centre at the last election only because of the absence of Nawaz Sharif from the scene.
Political analysts had also predicted that Benazir in jail within Pakistan would be a major threat to the establishment than Benazir in exile. It appears that Asif Zardari is confident that his political future within Pakistan is brighter than in exile.
He has refused to be a prisoner of any other country at any cost, adding that had the Swiss court summons been handed over to him in March, he could have approached the Supreme Court through his attorney to obtain bail in the various cases and also see his children and doctors.
How important Zardari's response was for the political future of his party was obvious from the fact that soon after the serving of the summons on him, PPP's senior leadership, including Amin Fahim, Secretary General Raja Pervez Ashraf, Senator Raza Rabbani, and some other prominent personages were out in force to meet Zardari's lawyer as he gave his initial reaction to the government offer.
For its part, the government deserves praise for giving Zardari the chance to prove his innocence. It must not create any hurdles if he decides to seek bail from the relevant court of law in order to go to Switzerland without any police or NAB escort.
His medical condition permitting, Zardari would do well to take the opportunity to clear his name in a European court of law. That court's judgement, undoubtedly, would be deemed as impartial and hence enjoy more credibility in the public mind in Pakistan than any local court, especially after the unsavoury episode in the Lahore High Court in the same money laundering case.
Barring a dramatic turn of events, if Zardari does not change his mind and the government rejects his terms for travel as a free citizen, those wizards in Islamabad will have to think up a good explanation for the Swiss court why they could not ensure the service of summons on an accused at present in their custody, for three weeks.
The government would then be in the dock, that is, only because of their stubborn incompetence.
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